Lyford breaks ground on Central Park

LYFORD — Since Hurricane Beulah flooded this area nearly 50 years ago, a little pond remains in the low-lying area residents call the “laguna.”

Yesterday, city officials began work to turn the city’s eyesore into its biggest park.

After three years of planning, city officials celebrated the $150,000 project’s groundbreaking.

“I want to beautify Lyford,” Mayor Wally Solis said after the morning ceremony in which local officials grabbed shovels and scooped dirt.

Right off Broadway Street, Central Park will welcome visitors to town.

“I have a vision that it’s going to attract people,” Solis said.

The city is using a $75,000 Texas Parks & Wildlife grant along with a $50,000 Willacy County donation to help fund the project.

On city-owned land, the 6.6-acre park will feature Lyford’s first lighted baseball field, Solis said.

“It’s a complete baseball field with a dugout and everything,” Solis said. “It’s going to be big enough for grown-ups to enjoy. Hopefully, we can get people and vendors coming in.”

Solis said the project includes construction of Willacy County’s first amphitheater.

“I think it’s awesome,” resident Carmen Kolenda said before the ceremony.

Residents such as Kolenda have been driving to Raymondville to use the walking trail at Eddie Stark Park.

But now she plans to exercise much closer to home.

“We walk three miles in the morning so we’ll use this park — it’s closer,” said Kolenda, an executive assistant at VTX1 who lives in the Lyford area. “It’s kind of centrally-located for Raymondville and Sebastian.”

But residents such as Ernesto Gonzales said they are concerned the park’s development could push floodwaters toward their homes along Broadway.

“I love children and I like to see baseball but flooding is my concern,” said Gonzales, who walked across the street to watch the ceremony.

Gonzales pointed to the little pond along the low-lying area on which the city will develop its second park.

“Since Beulah, it’s been known as a pond,” said Gonzales, a retired telephone mechanic.

Solis said engineers plan to expand the pond to turn it into a retention pond.

“My residents are my concern,” Solis said.

Solis said an improved drainage system will carry floodwaters into the retention pond to help curb flooding in the area.

Meanwhile, the city plans to upgrade a nearby sewer lift station to improve its capacity to help remove floodwaters, he said.

The city expects to complete construction in about three months, City Secretary Lydia Moreno said.